Pollinate Energy
With over 1.2 billion people in the world living without access to reliable electricity, the potential for innovation in the space of energy supply is unprecedented. Kerosene lamps are the most common source of electricity at night in poor urban areas. This is a problem for a number of reasons.
The first being that it is extremely dangerous when fumes are breathed in and the second that they cause frequent fatal accidents in the home. In addition, around 200 million tons of greenhouse gases are
Eliodomestico Solar Still
The Eliodomestico Solar Still is a solar terracotta water filter system that can distill up to five litres of water in a day. Gabriele Diamanti is an industrial designer who developed the system to solve the issue of limited access to fresh and clean drinking water in developing nations. The Eliodomestico system converts seawater, which is poured into the top of the terracotta structure, into fresh drinkable water using the heat of the sun.
The sun’s rays heat the water during the day, which in
Solar Leaf
Developed by professors at MIT, the Solar Leaf is made out of a thin silicon solar cell which is dropped into water in order to separate hydrogen and oxygen molecules, turning them into electricity by connecting them to fuel cells. The reason for the name ‘Solar Leaf’ is that the process imitates the photosynthetic process of a real leaf by converting water and sunlight into energy.
Essentially, one solar leaf placed in around one litre of water can produce up to 100 watts of energy, 24 hours a
Infrared Solar Energy
Another group of MIT researchers have developed a solar panel technology that can capture not just direct visible sunlight, but infrared light as well. The technology is a transparent carbon-based solar panel, a feature that dramatically increases its application potential. Having an infrared solar panel that is transparent means the technology can be layered on glass, everyday surfaces and even on top of existing solar panels, increasing solar panel efficiency considerably.
